In January ONS ran a consultation for 12 weeks to gauge stakeholder and user views on whether SOC2010 needed revising.

The majority (78%) of respondents stated that SOC2010 needed updating. Key areas highlighted by respondents were:

• the range of the existing groups and occupations are no longer reflective of many roles in the IT/Tech, digital and creative sectors
• the current SOC does not reflect some occupations where a degree is now a compulsory requirement or where a university qualification is now a common requirement
• a further disaggregation of some SOC groups is needed
• continuity between classifications for time series analysis is needed

A SOC Revision Steering Group (SRSG) was held on 11 July 2016 to agree whether an update to SOC2010 is needed. The Steering group agreed that SOC needed updating.

For more information please see both the findings and the outcome report that are available to download from here.

Minutes and Terms of Reference for the SRSG are available on request. In future they will be published on the GSS website.

For more information email socrevision@ons.gov.uk

Photo credit: Bridge Workers by Chris Brown